January 16th has a bit of special meaning for me. It was 40 years ago today I said "I do!" to my soul mate, "Wifey" as you know her.
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| Wow! We were young once! |
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| I believe this is Sam & Ada with their granddaughter, Adeline. |
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| Cropped page from the church record |
One of these days I finally have some stories to tell about Sam & Ada.
Peace,
B
If you were expecting a January birthday post, sorry, you'll be disappointed. I actually have no birthdays for any ancestor this month. But I do have an almost ancestor birthday.
My father had a previous marriage before he married my mother. Growing up I was never told anything about this woman other than her name, "Trudie". Nothing more. My elder siblings had some memories of stories dad told of her, but nothing that could be considered factual. I do know that he wore the wedding ring from that marriage and wouldn't let my mom buy him a ring for their marriage, even after he lost the ring doing yard work. It was obvious that the loss of Trudie was something he had trouble letting go of.
Even though Trudie isn't part of my linage, she is part of my heritage. If she was that important to dad, she counted as important to my family. Even so, when I started my family history research I waited until both my parents had passed on before looking into Trudie.
My eldest sister seemed to remember that our parents had married rather quickly after Trudie passed. We didn't know just how long had passed from her death to our parent's marriage. But we did know that mom & dad were married in Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, on 7 December 1947. Well, we thought we knew that, seems they misled us about the date. It took a bit of time, but I managed to find their actual marriage certificate. Yes, they were married in Rockville as they said, but it was on 7 February 1946. That would explain why my searches for marriage records took so long.
Now that I had a date that showed me that Trudie had to have died before 7 February 1946, I could start looking for her death records. Mom was working in Washington, D.C. when she met dad and thinking that chances were good that dad & Trudie probably were also living in or around D.C. when she died I would start my search there.
I guess for once my research logic was correct. As I've posted most of this before (here), I won't bore you with the details.
Just wish a Happy Birthday to my almost mom, Marian Gertrude Lyman, 9 January 1912 - 9 July 1945. It's a birthday close enough to the family for me!
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| Trudie & Don Campbell. |
Peace,
B
